There was a Labour MP interviewed on Sky News this evening who was still trotting out the “EU needs us to buy their cars” line. He thinks May got a lousy deal and the UK just needs to march back over to Brussels and threaten to leave without a deal if they don’t what they want.

Norway Plus, the increasingly touted cross-party plan for the UK to leave the EU, but join Norway in a free trade trade area inside the EU single market, has been rejected by senior Norwegian politicians and business as “neither in Norway nor the UK’s interest”. The UK would need Norway’s permission to join its EFTA club.

The rejection is a blow to an influential cross-party group led by the Tory MP Nick Boles with private cabinet support that is looking for a Plan B if, as expected, Theresa May’s deal is rejected by MPs next Tuesday…

Explaining Norway’s fear of the UK joining the Efta club she said: “The three countries in Efta have to agree on all the regulations coming from the EU so if one country vetoes something we all have to veto which means that if the UK enters the Efta platform and starts to veto regulations that we want, this will affect not just the UK but also us as well. Part of the success we have had with this EEA agreement is for the last 25 years is that we do accept the rules and regulations that do come out of the EU, mostly because it is in our interest.

“If as I understand UK politicians do not want to be ruled by regulations coming from other countries, why would they accept a country with 38,000 citizens like Lichtenstein being able to veto regulations that the UK wants. That would be the reality.”…

Norway Plus, the increasingly touted cross-party plan for the UK to leave the EU, but join Norway in a free trade trade area inside the EU single market, has been rejected by senior Norwegian politicians and business as “neither in Norway nor the UK’s interest”. The UK would need Norway’s permission to join its EFTA club.

The rejection is a blow to an influential cross-party group led by the Tory MP Nick Boles with private cabinet support that is looking for a Plan B if, as expected, Theresa May’s deal is rejected by MPs next Tuesday…

Explaining Norway’s fear of the UK joining the Efta club she said: “The three countries in Efta have to agree on all the regulations coming from the EU so if one country vetoes something we all have to veto which means that if the UK enters the Efta platform and starts to veto regulations that we want, this will affect not just the UK but also us as well. Part of the success we have had with this EEA agreement is for the last 25 years is that we do accept the rules and regulations that do come out of the EU, mostly because it is in our interest.

“If as I understand UK politicians do not want to be ruled by regulations coming from other countries, why would they accept a country with 38,000 citizens like Lichtenstein being able to veto regulations that the UK wants. That would be the reality.”…

So much for 'they are mad for herring ’ agreement
As a number of informed commentators have points out its near impossible for the UK to get to a Norway plus from their current position.
They would have to go back in time and approach the EEA/EFTA countries and engage in detailed discussions to see if was even possible. But the thicko Brexiteers still think its easy to leave the EU and negotiate a FTA. Maybe they should learn to walk before they can run

There was a Labour MP interviewed on Sky News this evening who was still trotting out the “EU needs us to buy their cars” line. He thinks May got a lousy deal and the UK just needs to march back over to Brussels and threaten to leave without a deal if they don’t what they want.

Jeffrey Donaldson DUP on the Pat Kenny show this morning was still using the ‘car buying’ line

Priti Patel says the threat of starvation in Ireland should be used as leverage to go back to Brussels.

Do millions have to starve in Britain for them to finally understand how millions starved in Ireland under direct London rule?

Even for a Tory politician, I didn’t think a statement could be possibly true. I had to Google it to make sure.

It’s gormless for sure, but it is the same uninterrupted Westminster sovereignty that induced starvation in Ireland that prosecutes Brexit now. Phil Hogan’s reply cuts to the heart of it.

EU commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan has criticised a Tory MP’s threat to use possible post-Brexit food shortages in Ireland as leverage to secure a better deal, saying it would lead to “the starvation of the British people”.

Priti Patel says the threat of starvation in Ireland should be used as leverage to go back to Brussels.

Do millions have to starve in Britain for them to finally understand how millions starved in Ireland under direct London rule?

Even for a Tory politician, I didn’t think a statement could be possibly true. I had to Google it to make sure.
It’s gormless for sure, but it is the same uninterrupted Westminster sovereignty that induced starvation in Ireland that prosecutes Brexit now. Phil Hogan’s reply cuts to the heart of it.

EU commissioner for agriculture Phil Hogan has criticised a Tory MP’s threat to use possible post-Brexit food shortages in Ireland as leverage to secure a better deal, saying it would lead to “the starvation of the British people”.

“This paper appears to show the government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario,” Priti Patel, who was International Development Secretary until last year, told the Times.

“Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”

BBC podcastWill Brexit lead to the pulling apart of countries within the European Union?
27 minutes of interesting debate on what’s next for Europe with speakers from Warsaw and Brussels.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cswk10

“This paper appears to show the government were well aware Ireland will face significant issues in a no-deal scenario,” Priti Patel, who was International Development Secretary until last year, told the Times.

“Why hasn’t this point been pressed home during the negotiations? There is still time to go back to Brussels and get a better deal.”

The optics that I get from this is that there is a possible danger to food security in Ireland.
The Irish government will have no objection to letting Irish people and small businesses suffer because we do live in a time here in Ireland Inc where the lines in government management has been to DO AS YOUR TOLD

No. There’s no conspiracy here.
This is all business as usual for 'The Great and The Good" of Irish Government.
They follow the line set by higher authority.
They can disagree for a while to temper and manipulate public mood but then they toe the line, if necessary changing laws to suit.
Many real examples of same in recent years.

Much as though we were/are an outpost of Britain, we are and will remain an even greater outpost of Europe.

How we will be discussing the similarities between the break up of the soviet union in December 1991 and the break up of the EU in (pick a date in the next 3 - 5 years).
Remember how solid the SU looked in 1985, it was expected to last for decades.

So Ireland is better off going out on its own trading with Iceland then ?

Instead of mumbling tell us how you can make Ireland more independent and prosperous than it is already ?

Make an effort …Details…Specifics.

I think you (and others) are missing much of the point of what’s brewing right across Europe at this stage. Discussion encompassing GDP and figures and growth projections simply won’t cut it anymore.

In the case of Ireland, when we were ‘poorer’ people could generally afford their own homes close to extended family networks (think affordable childcare), usually on one income. In much of the country people could leave their doors unlocked. Suicide was uncommon and most people spoke the same language as their neighbors. Kids generally wandered freely and safely wherever they wanted. Further, like it or loathe it, there was a spiritual aspect to life that provided many/most people with a sense of meaning as well as a collective identity…something that crass materialism of either a right or left variety quite clearly does not.

Undoubtedly some people’s lives were worse, especially those whose lifestyles or life choices caused them to fall beyond the narrower/stricter social mores of the day. However, I’d guess that much of the discontent we are witnessing currently is borne of a sense that people’s basic quality of life, despite material and technological advances, has quite simply deteriorated…probably moreso in other European states than in Ireland thus far, but its definitely in the post.

In essence, modernity itself appears to be in the dock and I’m guessing that requests or demands to identify a materialist agenda that may be negotiated and compromised around simply doesn’t even begin to address what is a reaction to a broad cultural malaise that has been half a century in the making.

How we will be discussing the similarities between the break up of the soviet union in December 1991 and the break up of the EU in (pick a date in the next 3 - 5 years).
Remember how solid the SU looked in 1985, it was expected to last for decades.

The former was held together by force, the latter is a voluntary union, as exemplified by a member leaving.

It’s not our fault the UKs exit is a shambles. They simply didn’t have a plan for leaving before they pulled the trigger on what I believe will instigate the demerging of the UK.

Interestingly the UK’s exit actually tips the EU more in favour of the smaller nations of the union.

The current (soon to be rejected) Brexit deal has a “Hotel California” clause in it, so the union isn’t that voluntary.
The second Brexit deal will need some real imagination if it is going to be accepted.